My Documents

[sidewalkcynic]

Does anyone have a system for storing all the documents I have collected and saved by months and years?

I've tried using the Dewey Decimal system, but I don't know, it doesn't seem to work.

000 – Computer science, information & general works
100 – Philosophy and psychology
200 – Religion
300 – Social sciences
400 – Language
500 – Science (including mathematics)
600 – Technology
700 – Arts and recreation
800 – Literature
900 – History, geography, and biography

thanks for your help

[Chronon]

In what way doesn't it work?

[sidewalkcynic]

I find it to be too cumbersome - ten domains, and some of them have multiple designations was difficult to comprehend the differences and then choose a category, and then after choosing a category, the next level of another ten categories offers the complexity again with no type of system of collation.

Have you tried it?

How do you systematize your documents?

[RiceMonster]

You must be a COBOL programmer.

[CharlesA]

I throw them in a folder called "Documents." Good filenames are good.

[sidewalkcynic]

You must be a COBOL programmer.I am pretty sure my mother used that language, but the only language I ever became familiar with was BASIC back in 1982, since then I have done no programming, just been working on this directory set up.

[lisati]

Ah, "Dewey Decimal"! I haven't heard mention of that classification system for many years. And I haven't used COBOL for a while either......

One of the classification systems I use - more for photos and video than for documents - is to have subfolders organized by date or the name of the organization I might have done some work for.

[sidewalkcynic]

Maybe, it would be better if I were to describe what I want is something along the lines of a research library on my computer that I can navigate with the file browser by subjects.

[shafin]

Try tracker tagging with gnome activity journal's time based browsing.

[NightwishFan]

I agree, tagging is probably a better route. Personally, I just keep everything organized by what it is, such as Documents/Fonts/Droid/Sans/.

[tom66]

For school, I categorise by subject, then I wrote a Python program to sort them into folders of weeks/days.

[jetsam]

Every forward thinking operating system has been promising the magic file-system/database merge for the last ten years. It will happen sometime within the next 50. In the meantime, my files and directories are a horrible jumble. Anybody know how to read an Apple II floppy?

Anyways... my sympathies. Directories are too hierarchical for a shelving system. That probably doesn't hep you, but good luck on what you're attempting.

[sidewalkcynic]

Every forward thinking operating system has been promising the magic file-system/database merge for the last ten years. It will happen sometime within the next 50. In the meantime, my files and directories are a horrible jumble. Anybody know how to read an Apple II floppy?

Anyways... my sympathies. Directories are too hierarchical for a shelving system. That probably doesn't hep you, but good luck on what you're attempting.
Wow, thanks for the confirmation that there are other's out there trying to do what I want to do.

[sidewalkcynic]

For school, I categorise by subject, then I wrote a Python program to sort them into folders of weeks/days.Sounds good. I wish I knew programming.. The program you describes sounds like a descent start to what I want. Currently the only thing I put into a daily file is my general news pages.

[jetsam]

Let me try to point you in a fruitful direction. I'm not going to link to anything because this topic really leads everywhere and I'm not kidding at all.

MIT has a project for archiving documents.

CMS stands for content management system. It's a consultant's goldmine. There are good open source ones available. Look at what the libraries in the poor parts of town are using. The ones with the volunteers.

LDAP is everywhere.

NoSQL, and it's significance, will confuse you eternally.

XML really is the shizzle.

I actually, oddly enough, hope that helps...

...:confused::P...

[sidewalkcynic]

I'm reviewing those languages - I really need to get on that stuff.

I installed the Activity Journal, but it doesn't come with any explanations, so i'm a looking around for some more info.

[sidewalkcynic]

In what way doesn't it work?To give you a better understanding of how cumbersome it is, consider any of the subsets of the ten domains. Look at how many words are used to designate a category - that is way too much to try to navigate quickly - I want single-word designations, as far into the hierarchy as possible. Each designation is to be a folder in the directory.


000 Computer science, information & general works
010 Bibliographies
020 Library & information sciences
030 Encyclopedias & books of facts
050 Magazines, journals & serials
060 Associations, organizations & museums
070 News media, journalism & publishing
080 General collections
090 Manuscripts & rare books

100 Philosophy & psychology
110 Metaphysics
120 Epistemology, causation & humankind
130 Parapsychology & occultism
140 Specific philosophical schools
150 Psychology
160 Logic
170 Ethics
180 Ancient, medieval, Oriental philosophy
190 Modern western philosophy


200 Religion
210 Natural theology
220 Bible
230 Christian theology
240 Christian moral & devotional theology
250 Christian orders & local church
260 Christian social theology
270 Christian church history
280 Christian denominations & sects
290 Other & comparative religions

300 Social sciences
310 General statistics
320 Political science
330 Economics
340 Law
350 Public administration
360 Social services; association
370 Education
380 Commerce, communications, transport
390 Customs, etiquette, folklore

400 Language
410 Linguistics
420 English & Old English
430 Germanic languages; German
440 Romance languages; French
450 Italian, Romanian, Rhaeto-Romanic
460 Spanish & Portuguese languages
470 Italic; Latin
480 Hellenic languages; Classical Greek
490 Other languages

500 Natural sciences & mathematics
510 Mathematics
520 Astronomy & allied sciences
530 Physics
540 Chemistry & allied sciences
550 Earth sciences
560 Paleontology; Paleozoology
570 Life sciences
580 Plants
590 Zoological sciences/Animals

600 Technology (Applied sciences)
610 Medical sciences; Medicine
620 Engineering & Applied operations
630 Agriculture
640 Home economics & family living
650 Management & auxiliary services
660 Chemical engineering
670 Manufacturing
680 Manufacture for specific uses
690 Buildings

700 The arts
710 Civic & landscape art
720 Architecture
730 Plastic arts; Sculpture
740 Drawing & decorative arts
750 Painting & paintings
760 Graphic arts; Printmaking & prints
770 Photography & photographs
780 Music
790 Recreational & performing arts

800 Literature & rhetoric
810 American literature in English
820 English & Old English literatures
830 Literatures of Germanic languages
840 Literatures of Romance languages
850 Italian, Romanian, Rhaeto-Romanic
860 Spanish & Portuguese literatures
870 Italic literatures; Latin
880 Hellenic literatures; Classical Greek
890 Literatures of other languages

900 Geography & history
910 Geography & travel
920 Biography, genealogy, insignia
930 History of ancient world
940 General history of Europe
950 General history of Asia; Far East
960 General history of Africa
970 General history of North America
980 General history of South America
990 General history of other areas

[PhilGil]

I've always thought the Library of Congress Classification system (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_of_Congress_Classification) was less cumbersome than the Dewey Decimal System. However, I agree with several other posters that document tagging is far more useful and flexible than a hierarchical classification system. My 30,000 file photo collection is tagged using DigiKam and I'm rarely more than a couple of mouse clicks from any photo I need.

[sidewalkcynic]

I want both, anyway. I want a structured system that is agreement with my community of like minded people, and I want to be able to tag the documents with my own personal quirks.

You see, you have a system for personal use. Chances are, most people would not be able to navigate your system. I am not all that familiar with the tagging systems, but I have looked at delicious.com one time and I use RedNotebook, and I like it; and what I have done with RedNotebook is set up the Categories option with a structure, and then I can tag it with my own personal idea. But this is just the tagging of entries into a journal/diary text editor.

Now, I do not use delicious.com. I set-up my Opera bookmarks with at least 3 versions of my structured system; two in the strict structure, one for all the Internet dictionary and encyclopedia entries for the specific categories, and one for my onboard library of the files I have downloaded. The third set is a specific area of the structured system that emulates the structure of society - the Community, GVMNT, NEWS, Science, and Technology section.

I have been somewhat misleading in the opening post - I have a structured system of the broadest categories, and I think it is stable, and that other people will be able to appreciate it with minimal indoctrination. I want to encourage others to try to devise systems of their own, because I want to have some examples of how people's thinking is so varied. You are describing that you have a system.

[jetsam]

<nothingtoseehere>Oh man, you want gobo linux!

Symlinks...um...
info link... hold on I need to look it up.</movealongfolks>


<script>hello.world.py</script>
<script>welcome.py</script>
<script>readingtime.py</script>
<script>newcard.py</script>
<script>badcardnodonut.py</script>
<script>whynotgit.py</script>

Have you looked at version control systems? git is the one that the linux kernel uses. There are other ones... subversion, mercurial, cvs (is that what it's called?)...

Also, you can symlink files in Unix so that they appear under more than one directory.

I think you can symlink directories, too, but I need remedial reading on the symlinking.

Are you ok with the command line, or would you prefer a gui or a web based interface?

[sidewalkcynic]

Have you looked at version control systems? git is the one that the linux kernel uses. There are other ones... subversion, mercurial, cvs (is that what it's called?)...

Also, you can symlink files in Unix so that they appear under more than one directory.

I think you can symlink directories, too, but I need remedial reading on the symlinking.

Are you ok with the command line, or would you prefer a gui or a web based interface?
Wow. thanks - I'll check that out.

I am okay with the command line, but i do prefer the GUI's, because I am not familiar with the languages. So, its a matter of me getting up to speed on programming.

The deal is that my system is fairly simple, and it would be open-source for people, but I want to be able to retain some copyrights, because libraries, search engines, and operating systems (MicroSoft, of course) would be interested in using it and adding it to their bag of tricks to offer patrons. So, I want to be sure i have that under control.

[jetsam]

Okay. Hopefully we'll sort your documents somehow. If there are long pauses in posting, rest assured I'll at least be paying attention to this thread.

This topic has many avenues of exploration, but maybe this thread can provide a means to cut through at least some of the brambles and with some luck and a certain and unknown amount of patience we can figure out a good way to sort and store Your Documents.

[sidewalkcynic]

My documents are sorted. I'm looking to see how other people sort their documents. And, it doesn't look like people are willing to attempt a "universal" system, they are content with a personal system. And their are some philosophical components to be considered, because basically, it leads to "mind" control.

It will probably be a couple of weeks before I put forth anymore, and I will probably just commence a new thread on Information Classification.

[jetsam]

Truly, you would then have defeated me, for I shall never put My Documents in order if you walk off all puffy and sore.

[cartman640]

Bah, why sort when you can search?

Seriously, I have eight main categories for data (documents being one small portion) on my machine, and there are eight because that's how many HDDs I have. Beyond that I can search, and searching (and subsequently finding the particular piece of data) time is far far less than sorting time (and on ~7TB of data sorting time is a long time). Content search does a wonderful job on documents, emails, contacts, etc too.

I understand this method probably won't work for you, or be what you're looking for, but you did say you were looking to see how other people sort their documents.

[jetsam]

Well, the 'big heap' method works pretty well for email I'll admit, and for personal storage it seems like the heaps can grow indefinitely as long as processing and memory continues to improve (i.e. Moore's law holds true), but, and it's a huge but, it doesn't scale very well to massive scale.

Also, if everything is in a pile you lose one of the most magical aspects of a shelving system: the serendipity of browsing and walking the stacks.

Anyways, sure Google can stuff the library of congress in a big metal warehouse and burn through Haiti's national debt every six months to have robots comb the pile for keywords.

It's not nearly as good as a library or a physical bookstore, though, for finding a good book.

Searching gives you something that mentions what you ask for. Browsing very often gets you both what you're looking for and what you didn't even know you needed.

These methods aren't exclusive of course. The solution will involve a combination of technologies.

But it would be foolish to not admit that the problem is tangled, and that the problem runs very deep.

[cascade9]

Tellico might be worth looking at-

http://tellico-project.org/

[jetsam]

Thanks, that looks great. Bookmarked. I'll be sure to check that out.

[standingwave]

I've tried using the Dewey Decimal system, but I don't know, it doesn't seem to work.I use Dewey. I figure, why reinvent the wheel?

http://i41.tinypic.com/391ya.png

[sidewalkcynic]

Bah, why sort when you can search?

Seriously, I have eight main categories for data (documents being one small portion) on my machine, and there are eight because that's how many HDDs I have. Beyond that I can search, and searching (and subsequently finding the particular piece of data) time is far far less than sorting time (and on ~7TB of data sorting time is a long time). Content search does a wonderful job on documents, emails, contacts, etc too.

I understand this method probably won't work for you, or be what you're looking for, but you did say you were looking to see how other people sort their documents.Yes, thanks. The problem I have with the search is that it might not give a full range of documents for a particular subject if the documents don't have the particular search terms, because of my person quirks about some information. You know how sometimes a particular subject infers a different subject.

[jetsam]

Do you need that shoe? I'm hungry.

[uRock]

I try my best to keep everything organized. I find it hardest to keep pictures separated in folders by date/event.

My college classes all go in the Documents folder where each class gets a folder titled with the class number and teacher name, such as CSCO790AHole. Once the class is finished I throw a happy little period in front to hide it. You never know when you might get to reuse a paper for another project.

[sidewalkcynic]

I'm checking out Gnome-Alexandria, and KDE-Tellico. These are for specific collections: books, music, video, stamps, games, etc. They appear to be good apps, as I have come to expect from Linux stuff - I just don't really have collections, yet.

These applications are reliant on the user to devise a category system - a personal category system. I do not want a personal category system, because I always find my personal categorizing system to be incomplete - missing subjects. I want something that is scientifically reliable as a list of every possible category of human knowledge. that is the guarantee of the Dewey Decimal and Library of Congress systems, but they are both way too cumbersome for quickly navigating in file browsers - multiple choices of multi-word designations are very difficult to comprehend and distinguish.

Here is what I have for the first two levels of a personal computer interface:

NATURE
1100. My Environment
1200. Mechanics
1300. Observation
1400. Naturology
1500. Science
1600. History of Discovery

TECHs
2100. My HouseHold
2200. Metrics
2300. Techniques
2400. Technography
2500. Industry
2600. Art & Tech History

HEALTH
3100. My Personal
3200. Diagnostics
3300. Action
3400. Hygiology
3500. Healthcare
3600. History of Medicine

IDEOs
4100. My Religion
4200. Logics
4300. Expression
4400. Ideology
4500. Persuasion
4600. History of Philosophy

SOCIETY
5100. My Government
5200. Statistics
5300. Behavior
5400. Sociology
5500. Community
5600. Social History
COPYRIGHT 2010 Ronald Martin 8053USA

[sidewalkcynic]

That was an abridged edition for personal computer interface. A complete system for an actual public library would be slightly more:

System
0000. Change
0100. Information
0200. Classification
0300. Knowledge
0400. Technology
0500. Communication
0600. Instance

NATURE
1000. Evolution
1100. Environment
1200. Mechanics
1300. Observation
1400. Naturology
1500. Science
1600. Discovery

TECHs
2000. Innovation
2100. Technology
2200. Metrics
2300. Techniques
2400. Technography
2500. Industry
2600. Art

HEALTH
3000. Experience
3100. Personality
3200. Diagnostics
3300. Action
3400. Hygiology
3500. Healthcare
3600. Medicine

IDEOs
4000. Inference
4100. Religion
4200. Logics
4300. Expression
4400. Ideology
4500. Persuasion
4600. Wisdom

SOCIETY
5000. Commerce
5100. Government
5200. Statistics
5300. Behavior
5400. Sociology
5500. Community
5600. History

TIME
6000. Interval
6100. Time
6200. Chronometrics
6300. Narration
6400. Chronology
6500. Eventuality
6600. Archive

COPYRIGHT 2010 Ronald Martin 8053USA

Where as SYSTEM and TIME are unnecessary for the interface along with the X000 series concerning Change; and the X100 series can be amended for personal uses for quicker access to personal information such as:

2100. My HouseHold

House
Appliances
Computer
Car
Pet
Job
Recreation

[sidewalkcynic]

There is a collation system of standardized concepts that are imposed to establish the domains.

0. SYSTEM - COMMs - Communication
1. NATURE - natural
2. TECHs - measurements
3. INDVs - human actions - psychology - HEALTH
4. IDEOs - ideologies - religion - philosophy - world view
5. ORGs - organization - GVMNT - commerce
6. TIME - history

This collation system can be replicated throughout the system to aid the user of the file browser to understand the subsequent categories of the domains.

That is until the subject becomes the primary concept and can only be sub-dived into its specific collation.

[jetsam]

I'm starting to think of trees and forests, and that goes straight to graph theory and doesn't pass go...

...back at the entrance sign, and the choice of libraries. So, just for sake of brevity: here's a sign:

Public Library, open to all, circulating collection available to residents only, rare book room requires appointment.

No we can start with a node.

. Everything.


Here's another one:

. More.

------------------------

[sidewalkcynic]

Now, we can start with a node.
Exactly!


. Everything.That would be Technology - everything we know is technology. "Dewey Decimal" and "Library of Congress" are brand names for technology.

[sidewalkcynic]

Here's another one:

. More.that may be helpful to understanding where it is going.

NATURE
1000. Evolution
1100. Environment
1200. Mechanics
1300. Observation
1400. Naturology

1410. Physicology
1420. Terrestriology
1430. Biology
1440. Mathemology
1450. Anthropology
1460. Chronology
1500. Science
1600. Discovery

1610.
1620.
1630. Scientists
1640.
1650.
1660.

TECHs
2000. Innovation
2100. Systems

2111. Change
2112. Systematics
2113. Distribution
2114. Components
2115. Interaction
2116. TIME
2200. Metrics
2300. Techniques

2310. Engineering
2320. Operations
2330. Exercise
2340. Practice
2350. Management
2360. Pedagogy
2400. Technography

2410. Naturography
2420. Apparatus
2430. Recreation
2440. Professions
2450. Organization
2460. Education
2500. Industry

2510. Extraction
2520. Manufacturing
2530. Service
2540. Counseling
2550. Community
2560. Education
2600. Art

2610. Artifacts
2620. Industrial
2630. Technicians
2640. Literature
2650. Performance
2660. Decorative

HEALTH
3000. Experience
3100. Personality (self-help)
3200. Diagnostics

3210. Homeostasis
3220. Pathology
3230. Self-esteem
3240. Psychoanalysis
3250. Epidemiology
3260. Geriatrics
3300. Actions

3310. Sensory
3320. Motility
3330. Cognition
3340. Expression
3350. Behavior
3360. Aging
3400. Hygiology

3410. Physiology
3420. Remediation
3430. Nutrition
3440. Psychology
3450. Health
3460. Gerontology
3500. Healthcare

3510. Forensics
3520. Hospital
3530. Hygiene
3540. Counseling
3550. Social Services
3560. Medical School
3600. Medicine

3610.
3620.
3630. Medical Scientists
3640.
3650.
3660.

IDEOs
4000. Inference
4100. Religion
4200. Logics

4210. Inference
4220. Linguistics
4230. Reason
4240. Systems
4250. Discourse
4260. TIME
4300. Expression

4310. Language
4320. Linguistics
4330. Opinion
4340. Rhetoric
4350. Persuasion
4360. Narration
4400. Ideology

4410. Culture
4420. Western Philosophy
4430. Intelligence
4440. Technicism
4450. Jurisprudence
4460. Cosmology
4500. Persuasion

4510. Peer Review
4520. Propaganda
4530. Opinion
4540. Proselytism
4550. Politics
4560. History
4600. Wisdom

4610. Ancient Philosophy
4620.
4630. Philosophers
4640.
4650.
4660.

SOCIETY
5000. Commerce

5010. Item
5020. Production
5030. Consumption
5040. Value
5050. Distribution
5060. Time
5100. Government

5110. International
5120. National
5130. State
5140. Local
5150. School
5160. TIME
5200. Statistics

5210. Forensics
5220. Econometrics
5230. Demography
5240. Demographics
5250. Census
5260. TIME
5300. Behavior

5310. NATURE
5320. Assimilation
5330. Responsibility
5340. Etiquette
5350. Communion
5360. TIME
5400. Sociology

5410. Organization
5420. Economics
5430. Psychology
5440. Ideology
5450. Political Science
5460. TIME
5500. Community

5510. Environment
5520.
5530.
5540. Private Organizations
5550. Government
5560. Events
5600. History

5610. DISCOVERY
5620. ART
5630. Biography
5640. WISDOM
5650. Social
5660. Periodicals

COPYRIGHT 2010 Ronald Martin 8053USA

[jetsam]

That's still just a list.

My nodes turn into zones.

I make maps.


Everything

[AdotB]

I have been wanting to find a system for better organizing my own files.
It seems to me that different types of files may need different ways of organizing them. For example: Documents/, Scripts/, and Pictures/ have different needs in regards to organization.

Does anyone have a specific way they organize these (and other) types of files?

[AdotB]

I was just thinking, it would be nice if there was a universal meta-data system for all files. Like an id3 tag that is attached to a file of any type and could be read by any file manager/search utility on any platform.

oh well

[sidewalkcynic]

I was just thinking, it would be nice if there was a universal meta-data system for all files.That is what i am working towards - standardizing the designations. As it is people have different interpretations for the same words, and that leads to considerable amount of error - especially in our social system.

[cguy]

I was thinking about the same thing.
My idea: an XML file containing tags inside the same uncompressed tarball as the useful file. It may not be efficient, but it'd have some advantages: metadata is stored in text files and would be easily understandable by any person, processing XML files could not be easier, the tarballs wouldn't be compressed so you wouldn't lose much processor time, all the files are ultimately unaltered so all their properties stand etc.
And the experience of the end user shouldn't be different from what it is now. Eg: when you open/modify the tarball your actions are redirected to the useful file.
Maybe the only visible difference would be a change of extension. Eg: xpng, xmp3.

On the downside: it wouldn't be very efficient space wise and speed-of-processing wise, but today these aren't great concerns for two reasons: 1. the current technology and 2. people don't lose sleep over writing efficient programs anyway.